Thanks for the awesome feedback:

Am I thinking correctly, if the Hacker is in the Mall, and searching for the Target in the Mall, the Hacker can:

Go VR, "fly" through all the nodes until the Hacker finds the Target. Of course the Hacker would be "out of body" so the Mall Rats could nibble on you, which could be good or bad depending on what kind of mall rats we are talking about.

Go AR, use a nearby Node to do a search through the Mall Nodes. This wouldn't be so much flying, as accessing the other remote nodes through the current mode, I envision this as similar to windows within windows. Probably should be sitting down while doing this, but still, even with the negative perception and other modifiers, you can watch the Mall Rats sneaking up on you, while you munch on your Nuke It burrito.

Go AR, Load up an agent into the nearb Node, and have it go do the search and report back to you? I don't think we covered this one yet.

i dont see the need to go node to node just to find someone using AR, just query the local matrix uplink and i would guess that 99% of them are listed there

if i can bring up the "website" of a company on the other side of the world using AR i should allso be able to access any node connected to the matrix without the need to go jumping from node to node.

only time i can see that being needed is if you dont have a matrix uplink within range and your target isnt within range of the comlink. so basicly it would be the backup plan.

still, this is me going by logic, not the rules

The "Finding someone in the Mall" scenario is along the lines of tracking down soemone whom you don't really know, but can identify visually. e.g. imagine your out "casing" a location, and you notice someone interesting, maybe they have some unusual gear or something, or talked to someone and you want to find out who they are. You've followed them for a bit, and they have entered good old Auburn Mall. In the meantime you haven't gotten close enough to scan them or get more identification. They walked to the mall, so Hacker didn't get a vehicle license etc...

So Hacker gets in the Mall, and decides to Hack the Mall network to see if the Target can be found, and then through the Mall network get the Targets ID, and then use the data trail to track the person rather then all this footwork. Hacker can:

Go VR, fastest, but huge penalties to act in meat body, and hack the nearest Node and start zipping around the Mall cameras and sensors till you can spot the Target. Then scan the target to see if you can pick up an identity out of the various PANs in the area of the Target.

Go AR and do as above, less penalties for doing so much AR in the Mall and slightly slower, you get less actions in AR then VR, but essentially the same actions.

Upload an agent to do the above and report back to you.

Once the target is found, and you know the PAN identifier, you can likely simply track the PAN through the Mall, without risking any direct observation. You can also start backtracking the data trail of that PAN through various other networks or areas you have passed through, and start various other investigations based on the identifier.

Anyway, that seems to be the gist of it. Does any of it seem unreasonable?

Sounds about right. And it illustrates just how complicated it could get if the Target were to be continuously Spoofing their PAN ID.

There is added complexity, but I think the net effect is a good one. Definately incentive for interactive hacking. The Hacker is incorporated directly into the "action" and it isn't a matter of data research while "offline" from the rest of the teams activities. There is also the effect that almost the entire team is going to be hooked into AR and interacting with the Hacker. All good.

Now to figure out drones!

Scenario. Rigger is using a nice roto drone to run surveillance to see who's been supplying the local gangers with ware and directions. Sure enough, who's that well dressed person that just left ganger HQ! Let's follow them and find out who they are! So Rigger is enjoying the one sunny Seattle day sipping a margherita on the balcony of some high rise, while the roto drone quietly follows the Target. So who is the Target? Rigger can:

Jump into the Drone and follow Target Home.

Jump into Drone, Hack the local network, VR or AR and scan for the Target's PAN, go from there, data trail etc.

Attach the Drone as a device to the local network, and use it to Hack, using VR or AR to scan for the Target PAN and go from there.

Attach the Drone as a device to the local network, and load an Agent amd software to do the above and report back.

One assumption is that the Rigger can do all this very remotely as long as there is sufficient Matrix connections between the Rigger and Drone. Is this correct, that now it seems far easier to do such long distance rigging?

If you use the Matrix as repeater, indeed.

Drone size question... how big are the various drone categories? I believe the "large" steel lynx drones used to be human sized. What about the others? I couldn't seem to find anything in the book on those. Also, I seem to remember the microskimmer being referred to as "a trash can lid" and made the assumption on its size from there. Now, the book seems to imply the current version is nearly the smallest there is...

Also, what are the perception thresholds for noticing micro and mini drones?

well, the MCT FlyBot, is stated as being the size of a large insect.
Now, having seen some truly large insects (a few inches long) I also wonder about that.
Though the ocular drone cannot be very large as it has to exit via a space smaller than the part we see of an eye.

Eww. "Mom, that weird guy just pulled out his eye!"

Exactly!

It's all fun until someone steps on it.

time to pull a g'kar (or was it g'car?) and leave the drone somewhere.

better make sure i either have a spare eye i can pop in or some dark sunglasses.

hmm, i would kinda love to have this kinda tech right now. god knows where i would be leaving all kinds of microdrones

I had a stupid thought. Is it even possible to get multiple eyes beyond the first set? Not to have implanted with the first two, but just to keep around, so you can take an eye out, replace it with a spare, and use the former eye for surveillance?

(Can they just be inserted/removed on-the-go?)

The rules state that most basic electronics don't have security and personal account user levels, they only have admin level. So the question is, does this mean that every basic consumer item out there has a +6 to it's hacking threshold, or is it a case of any access at all will give you admin rights?

Both, actually - hacking it at all is a +6 threshold, but gives you admin rights.

Ok, next question. The books says to assume that nearly all commlinks/PANs will use encryption. Does this mean that you need to buy and load the encrypt program on your commlink, or is this device level wireless encryption a seperate beast we can assume is built in to most wireless devices?

If it's the former, I don't think it's safe to assume that most commlinks will be running encryption. If it does work this way, most (none?) of the archetypes in the book are running encryption on their commlinks, even if they've got an expensive model

If it's the latter, then what exactly does one use the encrypt program for?

So you can encrypt the PAN communications via the commlink, then get rid of Encrypt without problems? In which case, I guess it's safe to assume that most of them come encrypted when purchased...

I think I'll just house rule in a free copy of encrypt on all operating systems (or maybe just on all commlinks)

Like every System comes with aa free Scan 1 integrated?

Your cellphone has no encryption; at least not enough to trump ROT-13. The masses probably have no encryption b/c they have nothing worth encrypting. Heck, even today the "only criminals will have encryption" is trotted out by the FBI.

My (possibly house) ruling is that client devices have enough CPU to manage encryption equal to their rating but they require a "parent" device (aka Comm) with encryption to utilize it. The Comm downloads the specific encryption algorithm to use and the client uses the largest key it can.

Those Files are encrypted (5 IIRC), but not specially stored.

Limiting the rating of the encryption to the Rating of the weaker device would house ruling indeed.

I think this is application of the RAW. It may be a house rule simply because I haven't found the *right* rules in the BBB and I haven't played it enough yet to be confident.

My interpretation is based on the Device Rating rules, which is effectively the value of all functions not specified but that are logical for the device to perform. Encryption is a reasonable expectation for devices to provide but it is is not detailed anywhere except the Encryption program.

Since there are no explicit rules for encrypting data between, say, a smartgun and a Comm with Encryption:5, I must fall back on the device rating, which for a smartgun is 3. IMO this means the communication between the Comm and the Smartgun will be encrypted but only at level 3. The Comm can use level 5 with other devices but not a off-the-shelf smartgun.

I'd expect Street Gear to have a cost for upgrading devices' encryption beyond their Device Rating. Unless, of course, I've missed a rule in the book somewhere.

Neither Firewall, nor Encryption are limited by the Device installed on - but Encryption by the Device running the program, thus setting up the encryption.

Actually, System and Firewall may be purchased like other programs, see p. 288.

Not quite.

After you have encrypted a communication/file/access, there is neither need to run the Encryption Program anymore, nor is the Encryption Program limited by anything else than the the System of the Node setting it up, thus producing an Encryption Rating equal to that.

There are no other limitations written in the rules.

I agree there is no need for every device to have a copy of the Encrypt utility but I see nothing that says a device can communicate using encryption of a higher rating than the Device Rating. Matter of fact, the section on rigging that mentions encryption mentions upgrading drones in the same paragraph.

Barring errata, I don't see a pocket calculator being able to support Encryption:12 when talking to a mainframe.

SR 4's "augmented reality" is essentially the same schtick from "GitS: SAC", right?

Sorry, the thought just occured to me.

-Siege

Hacker Joe has compromised someone's commlink and is eavesdropping on a call the owner makes with 3 successes. Who gets to detect the tap? Both commlinks involved in the call? Just the commlink that has been hacked into? If either of these, would it be System + Analyze (3) tests or extended tests? If extended tests, what's the interval? Or would one of the callers have to be actively searching for taps, requiring them to make a Computer + Analyze (3) test?

Sort of related to the Encrypt program discussion on this page: What programs come pre-installed with a standard OS? All common use programs at rating 1? At the rating of the system? None and you have to buy them separately?

A character with Logic 4 and no Data Search skill has a commlink with a Browse 2 program running on it and needs to look up some readily-accessible data on the Matrix. Looking at the defaulting section in skills, he would roll 5 dice (Logic 4 -1 for defaulting + 2 for Browse rating) total to find this information. If the same character is actually trained in Data Search, say with rating 1, why would he then only roll 3 dice? Am I completely missing something?

Or should everything in the Wireless World section say something like use Logic + Data Search + Browse for basic data mining or Logic + Hacking + Exploit (Firewall, 1 IP) for the hacking on the fly test?

The program simply would run on it's own, neither affected by Logic nor defaulting.

I'm thinking of doing that -- having all OS come with rating 1 programs that anyone, even non-programmers or non-hackers could run. So the runner without a Data Search skill running Browse 1 would still get one die to roll when looking for screening times for Serenity this coming Friday.